Did you know JJ McCarthy played Hockey? 

Maybe JJ said this after the TCU game.  This team has went through a media shit storm and come out the other side with a #1 ranking.  If any team had an excuse to sleepwalk through a game and lose it was this one. 

Michigan beat OSU again.  Then every sign stealing hack went into hiding, besides the twitter trolls of MSU and OSU who you could show Day and Izzo video hitting players, but they would say ‘Hairball” is worse because it affected the “sanctity” of the game.

Michigan’s reward for being 13-0, #1 is  Alabama in the Rose Bowl.  With Alabama beating Georgia in the SEC Title game, Michigan went from a projected 5.5 favorite in what would have been a classic Pac 12- Big 10 matchup in the Granddaddy of them all to a one-point favorite vs the 2nd most talented team in college football. 

1997 was the last of the “mythical” national championships in college football. I say mythical legitimately Georgia tech won a national title with 11-0-1 record and a win in the Citrus Bowl in 1990.  1998 would usher in the BCS, a two team playoff for a national championship.  1997 Michigan played and won a national championship in the Rose Bowl, before college football would be forever changed.

In 2023, Michigan will play in the Rose Bowl with a chance to play for a National Championship before college football is completely changed as it goes to a 12 team playoff.  It would be apropos that Michigan end the eras of college fooball with a national championship or it could be completely random. 

For fans of a certain age,  the Rose Bowl was the pinnacle of a Michigan season.  Playing the Pac -10 champion on New Year’s day while Keith Jackson or Brent Musbuger on the call.  Whole vacation plans would be promised if Michigan made the Rose Bowl, especially if you happened to be a student at the school at the time.  I started at Michigan in 1998 and left in 2003.  We last played in the Rose Bowl in 2004, 2005 and 2007, with us only truly earning the rose Bowl in 2005 by virtue of being Big Ten Champions.

19 years later,  this season ends regional conferences that make sense,  single elimination regular season, and Bowls that have any semblance of importance.  I wonder how long this iteration will last,  with lines being drawn for super conferences, probably with networks driving the discussion as their regular season inventory becomes less valuable.  Sorry I doubt 15 million plus people are watching OSU- Michigan, UGA-Bama, or Washington-Oregon if they aren’t defacto playoff games.  Thus driving revenue from the networks to the CFP cabal.  No one will know what is lost, so cherish the last semblance of a traditional historic Rose Bowl, even if it’s not versus Washington,

 

Rose  Bowl Buck

The Buck is actually the precursor to the venerable Moscow Mule.  The first concoction was simply an nonalcoholic ginger beer with a lemon peel, called a Horse’s Neck.   Bartenders obviously began experimenting (adding alcohol)  and it would become a Horse Neck with a Kick , this eventually got shortened to a Buck maybe from a Bucking Bronco.

The Scotch Lassie, a whiskey, lime juice and ginger beer was developed in the south in the 1870’s, but didn’t become popular until the turn of the century when Broadway starlet Maymie Taylor ordered it in upstate New York, and the name changed of the drink to a Mamie Taylor, spell check wasn’t a thing. 

The  fame of the actress and the drink dissipated and then the drink started to be called a again a Horse’s Neck. 

Then in the early 1940’s Jack Morgan, John Martin, and Oselin Schmidt met in a bar in LA.   Martin’s company had just bought the rights to distribute the very unpopular vodka Smirnoff in the states,  Morgan had a failing side project of ginger beer, Schmidt had inherited a copper factory and a surplus of copper mugs.

They created the Moscow mule ,and Martin with a marketing strategy Don Draper would be proud,  took the Smirnoff bottle and the copper mugs around to bars take some photos with the drinks and bartenders.  Then take the photos to the next bar telling  and showing how popular drink is.

But in reality, all the Moscow mules and its current status as cocktail darling can be traced back to the 1840’s.

 

Ingredients

• 2 oz Bourbon( you can really lean into it and use Four Roses)
• 1 oz Amaro Nonino, one of the main components of the in vodue Paper Plane
• 4 oz   Ginger Beer
• 1/2 oz Lemon Juice 
• Garnish: roses

Take the Bourbon, amaro and Lemon juice into a shaker add ice.  Shake until Ice cold, Strain into a copper mug, large cocktail glass or highball glass.  Garnish with the rose.

Thanks again for reading this year.  Have a Happy New year!